>> Friday, June 3, 2016

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March
Fianza

The elections are over and most local winning
bets have been proclaimed. We cannot avoid it but for sure, in a country such
as ours, there will always be sore losers. There are reasons for this. One, it
takes years for our justice system to resolve election cases; two, Comelec has
not sent anyone to jail for violations of election rules; and three, we are not
confident about the election system in this country, and even Comelec workers
have said that election automation is not tamper-proof.

Elections in the
country, whether these are barangay or national elections, are never conducted
minus the protests, cheating, over-spending, vote-buying and worst – bloody
violence involving candidates and supporters in identified election hotspots.

The same unsettled
problems and issues of the past prop up such as missing voters’ names or
disenfranchisement of voters, malfunctioning voting machines that Comelec
workers assigned in classroom precincts do not know how to fix.

Then we keep
appointing new Comelec commissioners who become additional problems themselves
because they do not have solutions to the main problems. That is one main
reason why there is doubt and diminished faith in the election system.

As a result, some
winning bets do not come out magnanimous in victory and some losers are not
gracious in defeat. British Orator and Prime Minister Winston Churchill said
this in many other ways in the past, but the meanings are all the same. People
should be worthy and upright winners and classy losers.

********

Actors and actresses,
other celebrities grabbed the headlines late last year upon filing their
certificates with the Comelec. Many of us thought such personalities would not
share political spaces to the more serious politicians, but no. After the
earliest official results were announced, we find some of them losing in the
counting.

Isko Moreno,
Edu Manzano, Mark Lapid and Alma Moreno who joined the senatorial race are all
losers, while former senator Lito Lapid was trailing incumbent Angeles mayor
Edgardo Pamintuan.

The only not so
surprising election result was that one clinched by boxing champ Manny Pacquiao
who is still in the Top 10 of the partial and unofficial results for senatorial
bets being counted in congress.

With millions of
boxing aficionados all around the country who do not care to balance the effect
of electing a boxing champ into office against having a serious
lawmaker,Pacquiao’s win in the senatorial race was expected.

Pacquiao’s performance
as congressman of Saranggani reveals his capability in lawmaking and
legislative work. He attended congress for only four times in 2014, the most
embarrassing absentee record in the House for that year. He never passed a
single law. Zero.

The province is one
among the 16 poorest, with more than 50% of households missing at least one
meal a day, according to the 2015 World Food Program report. This, despite the
fact that their congressman has been earning millions of dollars, and has been
reported in the news to be distributing food donations in calamity-stricken
areas.

To show to the public
that he is not just a boxing champ, Pacquiao stood on the House floor and
announced his opposition to the reproductive health bill. His argument was not
based on prevailing facts, but with lines lifted from the Bible.

Now we have a problem
of a “wild and mindless lion” that we just sent to the senate. We voted for an
absentee congressman who aspired to be senator who eventually won. Let us hope
that millions of people’s money spent on his office will not go to waste.

We now expect him to
debate on the floor, propose laws and policies that will shape the lives of
millions of Filipinos. While he dreams to be magnanimous in victory after you
vote for him as your President come 2022, we expect to be gracious in defeat.